Understanding and processing information contained in natural language queries expressing user intent is a major challenge in document selection. User queries in the form of natural language are usually fuzzy and implicit, which makes it hard to be processed by existing information retrieval systems, often requiring multiple user interactions for further clarification.
For example, when a natural language query is received in current information retrieval systems, the natural language queries are simplified by removing certain stop words (e.g., words such as “how” and “to”). As a result, only key terms within the natural language query remain and documents containing these key words are retrieved and returned to the user. However, such an approach may not capture the intent of the natural language query. As a result, any searches executed on the remaining terms may not produce results that are in line or otherwise correspond to the intent of the individual that submitted the natural language query.